<p>I'm attending UNC-Chapel Hill next year, and I was browsing through their class descriptions and found something really funny...classes in GEOGRAPHY. Turns out its a major and EVERY single class sounded interesting to me. I'm already a business major looking for a fun double major and a language minor. So what I'm asking is...do you know anyone who's majored or double majored with geography? What kind of jobs are out there?</p>
<p>A friend of mine majored in geography at Cornell and works for the agency-that-has-no-name. Presumably, the NSA.</p>
<p>For one year there new Geography grads had the highest average starting salary of any major in the US. But it lasted for only one year. Why? Because Michael Jordan was a Geopgraphy major, and there aren't very many other Geography majors in any given year.</p>
<p>Geography is a serious major at many schools. One of my good friends is a geography major. Certainly take a class and see how you like it, and major in it if you find you enjoy it, but don't go into a geography major expecting it to be all easy or fun. Colleges classes are (should be, at least) universally demanding and challenging for their students. Even though you were not familiar with geography as a college major, the major may still be quite difficult. At some schools geography may be an easy major, favored by D1 athletes or such, but that will not be the case at every school, so you can't really assume that. I'm sorry if this sounds obvious to you, but I couldn't tell by the tone of your post.</p>
<p>Today college majors have very little impact on job prospect, excluding pre-professional majors such as Business, Journalism, or Engineering. Your major will not limit you unless it is one of the pre-professional majors, in which case you will be best prepared for a single area.</p>
<p>I don't specifically know people who've majored in geography but I would think various kinds of urban and regional planning jobs would be among the possiblities, once you have a master's in planning--geography at some schools is pretty much intertwined with planning. Other than that, I suspect it is like any other liberal arts field--you get an undergraduate education and then you get a job for which your education has prepared you in a general sense. (Like history only offered at fewer schools!) You want to you can go on to other graduate or professional schools as well. No reason why you could not go to law school for example with a geography major if law interested you. You may very well decide against business as a major when you realize how much more interesting other fields can be.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You may very well decide against business as a major when you realize how much more interesting other fields can be.
[/quote]
Or you may decide to go with an unrelated undergrad major and pursue business after graduation anyway, either through work experience and internships during college or through a graduate school of business.</p>
<p>I have wasted a certain amount of energy talking up a geography major with m kids, as my impression was that it is marketable, while being more intrinsically interesting (at least to me and mine) than perhaps something business related. Last year I read something about how in certain parts of the country there is a shortage of city planners and the like, which is what a geography major prepares you for. However, not many schools offer geography as a major.</p>
<p>At UW Madison, the geography department is also where the cartography classes are, so if you are interested in maps and map making, it can also be a good major.</p>
<p>what do you learn in a geography major after you've already memorized a map?</p>
<p>What do you learn after memorizing a map? My gosh! So much! Geography is cultural, not just physical. Geography's quite the field now -- overlapping with other disciplines such as oceanography and even astronomy. A linguist would do well to study geography, as would those working in global agriculture, global public health, and even the energy field. The opportunities have multipled recently, and I only see them as continuing to multiply in the foreseeable future. It's one of the many reasons I wish I had been born inclined toward the sciences! What an exciting field now.</p>
<p>that was my idea of a joke. :-P </p>
<p>but really, i still don't know what exactly a geography major studies?</p>
<p>perhaps the OP would care to share some of the course titles?</p>
<p>I know that you can get a job in city planning with that degree.</p>
<p>Prince William was a geography major.</p>
<p>Prince William doesn't have to worry about getting a job.</p>
<p>A good friend did graduate work in geography at UCSB which involved remote sensing/satellite data analysis. It got him into computer programming,which he parlayed into a career in software development. Given GPS integration into cell phones etc, I assume geography as a field of study is pretty robust.</p>
<p>there is a great deal of employment in global information systems and a great deal of America awaiting proper mapping....I don't know much about the salaries in related careers.</p>
<p>S in a senior studying geography. He "discovered" the major his freshman year and has been more than thrilled with courses he's taken. Currently he is finishing up his senior field studies project in Tibet where every year an instructor takes 8-15 students. Geography is really a chameleon major. Though considered a social science, you can focus on hard sciences, anthropology, urban affairs and planning, the CIA and other govt. agencies. I think it is truly one of the "hidden gems" of a major. Double majoring should be no problem ( except that you may find so many interesting classes you may want to make it a triple :) )</p>
<p>You can be one of those people that drive around with a laptop, mapping streets for mapquest.
Just Kidding! :)</p>
<p>Forgot to add this link; lots of useful info for Geography majors. <a href="http://aag.org/%5B/url%5D">http://aag.org/</a></p>
<p>PhatAlbert, </p>
<p>Here is the beginning of the description of the major at my school, The University of Chicago:
[quote]
The discipline of geography contributes to an understanding of society by exploring the Earth’s environment and its interactions with human life, by inquiring into cultures and societies from the perspective of area study, and by investigating problems of spatial organization.
[/quote]
And here are the first three course descriptions (minus the intro course):
[quote]
**20100/30100. Cultural Geography.<a href="=ENST%2025900">/b</a> This course is an examination of the two main concerns of this field of geography: (1) the logic and pathology revealed in the record of the human use and misuse of the Earth, and (2) the discordant relationship of the world political map with more complicated patterns of linguistic and religious distribution. M. Mikesell. Winter.
**21700/31700. Globalization: Empirical and Theoretical Elements.<a href="=ANTH%2025700/35700,%20SOCI%2020114/30114">/b</a> This course examines how different processes of globalization transform key aspects of, and are in turn shaped by, major institutions (e.g., sovereignty, citizenship) and major processes (e.g., urbanization, immigration, digitalization). Particular attention goes to analyzing the challenges for theorization and empirical specification. S. Sassen. Spring.
**21900/31900. Historical Geography of the United States.<a href="=HIST%20%0A28800/38800">/b</a> This course examines the spatial dynamics of empire, the
frontier, regional development, the social character of settlement patterns, and the evolution of the cultural landscapes of America from pre-European times to 1900.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The rest is here: <a href="http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf_08/GEOG.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://collegecatalog.uchicago.edu/pdf_08/GEOG.pdf</a></p>
<p>My son was interested in a geography major initially and both Va Tech and the Univ of GA have large departments. After meeting with profs in both, we learned something astonishing...at VA Tech, they told us that Geog grads are among the most sought after majors and that ALL of their seniors the previous year (this would have been around 2004) who were looking for work had multiple job offers. The jobs were varied, across industries and government. Especially those kids who had some GIS experience (most do because it's usually required in the major), the starting salaries were excellent.</p>
<p>S ended up at neither school and ultimately was unable to major in this. I think he still has regrets about not being able to do it. But who knew it was such an interesting major with practical benefits at the end? H & I were both surprised by this news. It also would be a good field to pursue as a graduate degree, so maybe S will consider that.</p>
<p>Anyway, the beauty of the degree is that you can combine social sciences with natural sciences. The specific college will dictate the emphasis and depending on the school, the focus can be very different. Nonetheless, a great major for many. </p>
<p>One other thing is that it is a rather unique major, particularly for newly applying freshmen to declare. We were told by several schools that most kids don't discover this major until after they've been at college a year or more. So when S applied to several schools and listed it as his choice, at least we knew he wasn't "vying" for a limited number of spots for the most popular major.</p>